Mexico’s most creative economic initiative is radical and ignored

A tiny government programme shows what Sheinbaum should stand for.

For years, when tourists drove towards the legendary Mayan city of Calakmul, most didn't realise they would not be seeing a petrol station for at least the next four hours.

After spending most of their day stranded in the Calakmul nature reserve and following their rescue by the National Guard, these poor folks would then have to pour an overpriced two-litre Coke bottle-full of fuel to revive their vehicle. There must be a better way, many complained, but no one stayed long enough to think of a solution. They were, after all, tourists.

Over 1,000 kilometers away, president Claudia Sheinbaum opened the new year by declaring the success of Mexican Humanism, an invention of her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), to describe the new progressive ideology that underpinned the Mexican State.

Sheinbaum claimed that Mexican Humanism was behind Mexico’s 2.5% unemployment rate, its historic minimum wage, and the fact that it was the United States’ largest trading partner. This is all very good news and largely not down to any action by the Mexican government.

Certainly, the minimum wage is a badge Morena, the ruling party under both Sheinbaum and López Obrador, can pin on its chest. The rest, though, has far less to do with Mexican Humanism and much more with the tectonic forces of trade and geopolitics.

It is a bit of a shame, because there is much interesting policy behind Mexico’s new State-ideology. The government has simply neglected to invest in it. It certainly deploys Mexican Humanism when it is politically beneficial—The Mexico Political Economist has often pointed out how well-meaning policies often do more damage than good, but ultimately create relationships of clientelism and dependency with the poorest voters.

There is one programme that does the opposite. It empowers poor and rural communities and encourages them to develop their local economy in a way that swiftly ceases to depend on the State. It also happened to solve Calakmul’s fuel problem.

“Even though there are many governmental programmes, this one is unique, because it foments a cooperative economy,” Javier Bonilla, head of communications at ASEA, the agency in charge of the programme, told The Mexico Political Economist.

Nothing is more representative of Mexican Humanism than this programme which has, nonetheless, been left by the wayside.